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Comparative Study Series \o. 2 



Emerson and Vedanta 



BY SWAMI PARAMANANDA 

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Cmcrfion anti 
^ebanta 

BY 

SWAM I PARAMANANDA 

AtTiioK or "ioul'i tEcarr Dooa," "thk vigil." 

"rLATO AKD VCOIC IDEALISM," "THE rATH Of Dr- 
VOTIOH," "fAITH A« A COIttT«UCTIVt EOECE." ETC. 




Second Edition 
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Publiihed by 
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Reprinted from the Vedanta Monthly 
"The Message of the East" 

Copyright by Swami Paramananda 
1918 

PRINTED IN U.S.A. 



■^3 3 



PREFACE 

The lectures contained in these pages 
were deHvered at The \ edanta Centre of 
Boston and later published in its mag- 
azine, "The Message of the East." The 
keen interest which they aroused has led 
us to reprint them in more convenient 
form. A new chapter on. "Kmerson and 
Hindu Classics" has been added which 
will prove valuable to the scholar and stu- 
dent of comparative philosophy. 

The purpose of the lectures was to set 
forth the striking similarity between the 
writings of Emerson and the sacred teach- 
ings of the East — pre-eminently those of 
India. Deep students of Vedic ideals have 



long regarded Emerson as an inspired in- 
terpreter of these ideals to the West; and 
there can be no doubt that as one turns 
the pages of his numerous essays and fol- 
lows the exalted trend of his words, one 
can almost imagine that they fall upon the 
ears from some far Himalayan height. 

It has always been one of the chief aims 
of the present author to show the funda- 
mental harmony underlying all phases 
of higher thought, and this volume is one 
more effort towards the same end. 

EDITOR. 



CONTENTS 

I. EMERSON AND VEDANTA ... - 11 

II. KARMA AND COMPENSATION - - - - 28 

III. ATMAN AND OVER-SOUL . . - - 46 

IV. EMERSON AND HINDU CLASSICS - - - 67 



"It is not to Israel alone that God has spoken 
and revealed His it/ill; nor ezen only to recog- 
nized prophets, zvhethcr in Israel or among the 
nations. But to all who have his work to do He 
speaks, much or little, clearly or in parables and 
insions, according to their needs and according 
to their fitness to hear and understand." 

— Wisdom of Israel. 



LET HIM SPEAK* 

Let him speak whose spirit flows like the river in 

flood-time, full and strong; 
Let others keep silent. 
The tongue that speaketh soulless words 
But scattereth pebbles before hungry mouths. 
I keep still; do Thou speak. 
For Thou alone canst speak to my soul. 



• This is one of the author's latest poems. 



I 

EMERSON AND VEDANTA 



4 4 T V what philosophers say of the kin- 
X ship between Cjod and man be true, 
what lias any one to do but, like 
Socrates, when he is asked what country- 
man he is, never to saj' that he is a citizen 
of Athens or Corinth, but of the world? 
. . . Why may not he who under- 
stands the administration of the world and 
has learned that the greatest and most 
principal and comprehensive of all things 
is this system composed of men and God ; 
and that from Him the seeds of being are 
descended, not only to my father and 
grandfather, but to all things that are pro- 
duced and born on earth, and especially 



12 Emerson and Vedanta 

to rational natures, as they alone are quali- 
fied to partake of communion with the 
Deity, being connected with Him by un- 
derstanding : why may not such a one call 
himself a citizen of the world? Why not 
a son of God?" These words of the Ro- 
man philosopher Epictetus show how all 
truly great men possess a universal phil- 
osophy of life; and how natural it is for 
them to transcend the limitations of lo- 
cality, race and creed, and break down all 
barriers of apparent difference. 

This is essentially true of Emerson. You 
may go to the Far East — to India, Persia 
or China — and you will find a volume or 
two of his essays there where you would 
least expect to find them; and you will 
meet people who accept Emerson's writ- 
ings, not only with sympathy, but as their 
own, because they recognize in them a real 
kinship of thought and ideals. There can 
be no doubt that Emerson was deeply in- 



Emerson and Vedanta 13 

terested in Eastern philosophy. In his 
writings we find many direct and indirect 
references to Oriental teachings. He was 
a devout student of the Bhagavad-Gita 
and the L'panishads, and often quoted or 
used stories from them. 

Yet this does not mean that Kmerson 
borrowed. I believe that there cannot be 
any borrowing in the higher realms of 
knowledge. There we cannot take what 
does not belong to us. We can borrow 
relative knowledge, but true knowledge 
can never be borrowed. It must rise up 
from the innermost recesses of our being. 
We must possess the power to recognize 
and assimilate it. Fmerson was by no 
means the only one of his generation to 
study Oriental literature. Others read it, 
but they were unable to find in it what he 
did, because their prejudices and their lack 
of understanding made it impossible for 
them to grasp its true import. A gentle- 



14 ETnerson and Vedanta 

man once said to Emerson that he had 
studied all the different philosophies and 
religions of the world, and he was now con- 
vinced that Christianity was the only one ; 
to which Emerson replied: "That only 
shows, my friend, how narrowly you have 
read them." Unless we have openness of 
mind and a certain depth of spiritual con- 
sciousness, we may come in contact with 
many lofty ideals, but they will make no 
definite impression on us. We may try 
to borrow them, but we cannot retain them 
or use them intelligently until we have 
made them our own. When the higher 
light of understanding comes, we find that 
there is no need tq borrow, because all 
men have equal access to what is cosmic. 
As Emerson has said: 

"There is one mind common to all in- 
dividual men. Every man is an inlet to 
the same and to all the same. He that is 
once admitted to the right of reason is 



Emerson and Vedanta 15 

made a freeman of the whole estate. What 
Plato has thought, he may think; what a 
saint has felt, he may feel ; what at any 
time has befallen any man, he can under- 
stand. Who hath access to this universal 
mind is a party to all that is or can be 
done, for this is the only and sovereign 
agent." "Of the universal mind each in- 
dividual is one more incarnation. All its 
properties consist in him." "So all that is 
said of the wise man by Stoic or Oriental 
or modern essayist, describes to each read- 
er his own idea, describes his unattained 
but attainable self." "How easily these 
old worships of Moses, of Zoroaster, of 
Manu, of Socrates, domesticate themselves 
in the mind. I cannot find any antiquity 
in them : they are mine as much as theirs." 
This idea of the universal mind brings 
before us forcibly the great fundamental 
truth of the Vedas, — Ekam-fva-dvityam, 
"Spirit is one without a second." Out of 



16 Emerson and Vedanta 

that one essence the whole universe has 
evolved and in that one it rests. As it is 
said in the Yajur-Veda: "The Absolute, 
though one, is conceived as many; count- 
less luminaries become one in Him; all 
the Vedas (Scriptures) become one in 
Him; all sacred rites become one in Him. 
He abides equally in the soul of all exist- 
ing things ; He is the Inner Self of all be- 
ings, seated in the heart of every living 
creature; He is the Ruler of all creatures, 
and all beings become one in Him." 

When Emerson gave expression to these 
ideas which were not strictly orthodox 
from the Christian point of view, he did 
not meet with a sympathetic welcome. He 
even had to resign his pulpit, as we know ; 
but this did not make him give up his 
convictions, which proves his true great- 
ness. Whenever a man is willing to make 
compromises and limit his beliefs through 
fear of public opinion, we may know that 



Emerson and Vedanta 17 

he lacks true spirituality. But Emerson 
was not merely a popular preacher or a 
scholar, he was a spiritual genius. He had 
a wider vision. He struck a note that was 
both spiritual and universal. He writes in 
his essay on Circles: "I thought as I 
walked in the woods and mused on my 
friends, why should I play with them this 
game of idolatry? I know and see too 
well, when not voluntarily blind, the 
speedy limits of persons called high and 
worthy. O blessed Spirit, whom I for- 
sake for these, they are not thou. Every 
personal consideration that we allow costs 
us heavenly state. We sell the thrones of 
angels for a short and turbulent pleasure." 
This passage shows clearly his attitude 
of mind, how unwilling he was to give up 
what he believed to be true and what was 
the result of his long and deep reflection. 
"What I must do is all that concerns me, 
not what the people think," he exclaims. 



18 Emerson and Vedanta 

"This rule, equally arduous in actual and 
in intellectual life, may serve for the whole 
distinction between greatness and mean- 
ness. It is the harder because you will 
always find those who think they know 
what is your duty better than you know 
it. It is easy in the world to live after the 
world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to 
live after our own; but the great man is 
he who in the midst of the crowd keeps 
with perfect sweetness the independence 
of solitude." 

Great souls sometimes seem very un- 
compromising because they are unwilling 
to sacrifice that which they believe to be 
vital. They necessarily have a diff^erent 
standard, and they cannot be untrue to 
that standard even though the whole world 
turn against them. As Emerson says: 
"The angels are so enamored of the lan- 
guage that is spoken in heaven that they 
will not distort their lips with the hissing 



Emerson and Vedanta 19 

and unmusical dialects of men, but speak 
their own, whether there be any who un- 
derstand it or not." Those who possess 
such courage of conviction are the only 
ones who really contribute towards the 
well-being of mankind. 

Emerson more than once speaks of his 
debt to the Hindu Scriptures, and there 
can be no doubt that in his long study of 
them he found much to inspire him. In 
his essay on Quotations and Originality he 
says : "What divines had assumed as the 
distinctive revelations of Christianity, the- 
ologic criticism has matched by exact 
parallelisms from the Stoics and poets of 
Greece and Rome. Later when Confucius 
and the Indian Scriptures were made 
known, no claim to monopoly of ethical 
wisdom could be thought of." "It is only 
within this century that England and 
America discovered that their nursery- 
tales were old German and Scandinavian 



20 Emerson and Vedanta 

stories ; and now it appears that they came 
from India, and are the property of all 
the nations descended from the Aryan 
race, and have been warbled and babbled 
between nurses and children for unknown 
thousands of years." Once more in Per- 
sian Poetry he writes: "The favor of the 
climate, making subsistence easy and en- 
couraging an outdoor life, allows to the 
Eastern nations a highly intellectual or- 
ganization, — leaving out of view at present 
the genius of the Hindoos (more Oriental 
in every sense), whom no people have sur- 
passed in the grandeur of their ethical 
statement." 

After reading these passages we cannot 
doubt that Emerson fully recognized the 
loftiness and beauty of the Eastern teach- 
ing. He also possessed an unusual grasp 
of Indian Philosophy and picked out here 
and there its fairest thoughts to mingle 
with his own. To-day it is easy to find 



Emerson and Vedanta 21 

many translations of Oriental writings; 
but in his time the translations were few 
and imperfect; yet because he possessed 
the same quality of mind, he was able to 
draw out from them the essence. He was 
like the mythical Indian swan, which when 
it is given milk mixed with water, is able 
to separate the milk from the water and 
take only the milk. 

Whenever we study in a superficial way, 
we do not touch the essence and the es- 
sence does not touch us. We all have the 
opportunity of coming in contact with 
great writings or great men, but they do 
not reach us. Sri Ramakrishna to illus- 
trate this gives a parable of three dolls, 
one of salt, one of cloth and one of stone. 
When the salt doll went into the ocean, 
it at once became one with it; the cloth 
doll was wet through, but retained its 
own form; while the stone doll remained 
unchanged. So some people have such a 



22 Emerson and Vedanta 

stony nature, nothing seems to make an 
impression on them. But we can all over- 
come this and make ourselves susceptible 
to higher ideals if we wish. 

Vedanta insistently proclaims that there 
can be no boundary lines in the realm of 
thought ; and above all it teaches that un- 
less we can put aside our narrow preju- 
dices and superstitions, we can never hope 
to attain the highest Truth. I use the 
word "superstition" because whenever we 
cling to a fixed idea or to certain forms 
and rituals merely because our forefathers 
believed in them or because they have be- 
come a habit with us, that is superstition. 
The central aim of Vedanta is to bring 
all to one unifying understanding, yet 
to let each one follow his own particular 
form of faith. When we try to force same- 
ness of thought, it bars spiritual progress ; 
but when we admit the possibility of per- 
fect unity in variety, then each one is able 



Emerson and Vedanta 23 

to advance in his own way. Vedanta real- 
izes that as long as there are such differ- 
ences in human temperament and mind, 
we cannot expect all to worship in the same 
manner. To destroy diversity in life 
would be to destroy much of its beauty 
and sublimity. Therefore Vedanta in- 
cludes in its scope all forms of thought. 
It sees that even the crudest aspect of re- 
ligious faith has its value, since it would 
not be possible for the ignorant man and 
the philosopher to have the same concep- 
tion of Truth. Their aspiration may be 
equal, but their modes of expression must 
inevitably differ. 

"Truth is one, men call it by various 
names and comprehend it in different 
ways !" Such was the profound discovery 
of Indo-Aryan sages as far back as in the 
Rig-Veda, several thousand years before 
the Christian era; and it has been the 
basis ever since for all the ethical and 



24 Emerson and Vedanta 

spiritual ideals of India. These Seers real- 
ized that dualism, qualified non-dualism 
and monism did not represent rival phases 
of belief, but different degrees of spiritual 
development, each having special appeal 
for certain types of mind. It would be 
just as absurd to expect a person of rudi- 
mentary understanding to grasp the lofti- 
est ideals of monism, — that there is but 
one Life, one Cosmic Principle, one Con- 
sciousness permeating the whole universe 
— as it would be to expect a child in the 
primary school to grasp the highest prob- 
lems of astronomy. Yet in time we know 
that the child wi'l grow to comprehend 
them if he perseveres. 

Emerson makes this plain in his essay 
' on Immortality when he writes : "Will you 
offer empires to such as cannot set a house 
or private affairs in order ? Here are peo- 
ple who cannot dispose of a day ; an hour 
hangs heavy on their hands ; and will you 



Emerson and Fedafita 25 

offer them rolling ages without end? But 
this is the way to rise. Within every man's 
thought is a higher thought, — within the 
character he exhibits today, a higher 
character. The youth puts off the illu- 
sions of the child, the man puts off the ig- 
norance and tumultuous passions of 
youth ; proceeding thence puts off the ego- 
tism of manhood, and becomes at last a 
public and universal soul. He is rising to 
greater heights, but also rising to realities ; 
the outer relations and circumstances 
dying out, he entering deeper into God, 
God into him, until the last garment of 
egotism falls, and he is with God and 
shares the will and immensity of the First 
Cause. 

"It is curious to find the selfsame feel- 
ing, that it is not immortality, but eternity, 
— not duration, but abandonment to the 
Highest, and so the sharing of His per- 
fection — appearing in the farthest East 



26 Emerson and Vedanta 

and West. The human mind takes no ac- 
count of geography, language, or legends, 
j but in all utters the same instinct." 

Emerson's great openness, fairness and 
love of Truth enabled him to understand 
the teachings of all nations ; and when- 
ever he came across great truths, he recog- 
nized and absorbed them. When a man 
can thus perceive the highest in other men, 
it deals a death-blow to all littleness. In 
comparing Emerson's philosophy with the 
Vedic teaching there is no intention to be- 
little the genius of Emerson. The uni- 
versal facts of life are the same in East 
and West, in the remotest past and the 
present. It was because Emerson had dis- 
covered certain profound truths in his own 
soul, that he was able to accept with de- 
light the same truths when he discovered 
them elsewhere. Only a man who is an 
expert in the higher realms of knowledge, 
can analyze and appreciate the value of 



Emerson and Vedanta 27 

ideas of rare quality when he finds them ; 
and Emerson was able to do this. We are 
destined more and more to be thrown to- 
gether, and I hope and pray that it may be 
the will of the Cosmic Being to destroy 
the fictitious barriers which exist between 
East and West, North and South ; and en- 
able us to meet in the one universal Truth. 
All great minds do this. They cannot be 
satisfied to live in little narrow holes of 
their own. They must expand; and as 
they expand, they leave behind them all 
sense of difference. Those who are able 
to abide in this unbroken unity become 
free souls and enjoy the supreme cosmic 
Bliss and Infinitude. 



II 

KARMA AND COMPENSATION 



THOU canst not gather what thou 
dost not sow ; as thou dost plant the 
trees, so will it grow . . . Whatever 
the act a man commits, whatever his state 
of mind, of that the recompense must he 
receive in corresponding body." These 
profound and dynamic words of wisdom 
spoken by Manu the great ancient law- 
giver of India, not only express the basic 
principle of the Vedic idea of Karma (law 
of compensation), but they contain the 
simple but irrevocable law of human des- 
tiny. For even in Nature we find con- 
stant proof of the truth and fairness of 
this law in every turn of life. For only 



Karma and Compensation 29 

the rose will produce a rose and an apple- 
seed, an apple-tree. With same precision 
and exactness pure thought and kind deeds 
will produce unfailing happiness and their 
opposite will bring man misery. This is 
not an arbitrary law; it is a true, gentle, 
but firm and just principle of life. When 
we learn to abide by its beneficence our 
life produces in abundance the richness of 
human experience. 

The idea of Karma is not regarded 
in India as a theological doctrine 
or as an intellectual speculation; it is 
considered to off"er the only rational, 
logical and satisfactory explanation of all 
the perplexities and problems of human 
life. The word Karma, from the Sanskrit, 
literally means "action," that is, all that 
we think, all that we do, and also what- 
ever is produced as the result of our 
thought and deed. It is not limited, how- 
ever, to what we think and do in this life 
only; its scope extends to all the past 



30 Emerson and Vedanta 

and all the future. The law must operate 
in both directions ; because if what we are 
doing now is to determine our future con- 
dition, then there must have been some 
cause in the past for our present condition. 
There are many who believe in a future 
life, but who are unwilling to accept the 
idea of pre-existence ; yet it requires little 
logic to see that if we exist in the future, 
then our present life must become pre- 
existence to that future life. 

In India the idea of Karma is not a mere 
dogmatic belief; it is a fundamental law 
and corresponds to what modern science 
calls the law of cause and effect. It shows 
that there is no such thing as chance or 
injustice in human affairs; that all these 
inequalities which we see in the world are 
not ordained by an arbitrary Ruler, but 
are the inevitable results of our own mode 
of life and thought. This life, in Indian 
Scriptures, is called Karma-hhumi, the 



Karma and Compensation 31 

harvest field of action; and according to 
the seeds we sow in it do we reap. It is 
evident that we cannot reap what we do 
not sow ; hence what comes to us must be 
of our own planting. For the same reason 
people have no cause to be frightened by 
circumstances; for however overpowering 
and unalterable our present condition may 
seem, it can always be undone by the 
thoughts and actions which we sow to-day. 
Emerson gives a clear expression of this in 
his essay on Compensation. 

"Ever since I was a boy," he says, "I 
have wished to write a discourse on Com- 
pensation ; for it seemed to me when very 
young that on this subject life was ahead 
of theology and the people knew more 
than the preachers taught. ... It seemed 
to me also that in it might be shown a 
ray of divinity, the present action of the 
soul of this world, clean from all vestige 
of tradition: and so the heart of man 



32 Emerson and Vedanta 

might be bathed by an inundation of 
eternal love, conversing with that which 
he knows was always and always must be, 
because it really is now. It appeared, more- 
over, that if this doctrine could be stated 
in terms with any resemblance to those 
bright instructions in which this truth is 
sometimes revealed to us, it would be a 
star in many dark hours and crooked pass- 
ages in our journey, that would not suffer 
us to lose our way. 

"I was lately confirmed in these desires 
by hearing a sermon at church. The 
preacher, a man esteemed for his ortho- 
doxy, unfolded in the ordinary manner the 
doctrine of the Last Judgment. He as- 
sumed that judgment is not executed in 
this world ; that the wicked are successful ; 
that the good are miserable; and then 
urged from reason and from Scripture a 
compensation to be made to both parties 
in the next life. . . . What did the 



Karma and Compensation 33 

preacher mean by saying that the good are 
miserable in the present life ? Was it that 
house and lands, offices, wine, horses, 
dress, luxury, are had by unprincipled 
men, whilst the saints are poor and de- 
spised; and that a compensation is to be 
made to these last hereafter, by giving 
them like gratifications another day — bank 
stock and doubloons, venison and cham- 
pagne? This must be the compensation in- 
tended; for what else? Is it that they are 
to have leave to pray and praise? to love 
and serve men? Why, that they can do 
now. The legitimate inference the disciple 
would draw was : We are to have such a 
good time as the sinners have now,' or to 
put it to its extreme import, *You sin now, 
we shall sin by and by ; we would sin now, 
if we could; not being successful, we ex- 
pect our revenge tomorrow.' 

"The fallacy lay in the immense con- 
cession that the bad are successful; that 



34 Emerson and Vedanta 

' justice is not done now. The blindness of 
the preacher consisted in deferring to the 
base estimate of the market of what con- 
stitutes a manly success, instead of con- 
fronting and convicting the world from the 
truth; announcing the presence of the 
soul ; the omnipotence of the will, and so 
establishing the standard of good and ill, 
of success and falsehood." 

This is what we see in the world of or- 
dinary consciousness, the world where 
everything is looked at and judged from 
the surface. When we analyze properly, 
however, we find that the whole standard 
here rests on a physical basis ; but a com- 
plete explanation of life can never be 
found if we limit our vision to the surface 
only. So long as we merely perceive the 
effect and judge from that, we shall always 
see injustice and feel resentful. Emerson 
writes: "Every act rewards itself, or in 
other words, integrates itself, in a two- 



Karma and Compensation 35 

fold manner; first, in the thing, or in real 
nature, and secondly in the circumstance, 
or in apparent nature. Men call the cir- 
cumstance the retribution. The causal 
retribution is in the thing and is seen by 
the soul. The retribution in the circum- 
stance is seen by the understanding; it is 
inseparable from the thing, but is often 
spread over a long time and so does not 
become distinct until after many years. 
The specific stripes may follow late after 
the offense, but they follow because they 
accompany it. Crime and punishment 
grow out of one stem. Punishment is a 
fruit that unsuspected ripens within the 
flower of the pleasure which concealed it. 
Cause and effect, means and ends, seed 
and fruit, cannot be severeii ; for the effect 
already blooms in the cause, the end pre- 
exists in the means, the fruit in the seed." 
This is absolutely in accordance with 
the Indian conception of Karma. The ef- 



36 Emerson and Vedanta 

feet we see is nothing but the fruition of a 
seed of action. Whether or not any one 
keeps record of what we think or do, even 
in the dark, the seed we sow must bear 
fruit; just as a seed grows even when the 
gardener drops it unconsciously on the 
soil. It is not that an arbitrary will de- 
crees that we be happy or unhappy. The 
world is governed by law and man can- 
not escape from that law. As soon as he 
understands this, he tries to put himself 
in harmony with it. "All things are 
double, one against another," Emerson 
writes. "Tit for tat; an eye for an eye; 
a tooth for a tooth ; blood for blood ; meas- 
ure for measure ; love for love. Give and 
it shall be given you. He that watereth 
shall be watered himself. Thou shalt be 
paid exactly for what thou hast done, no 
more, no less. Who doth not work shall 
not eat. Curses always recoil on the head 
of him who imprecates them. If you put 



Karma and Compensation 37 

a chain around the neck of a slave, the 
other end fastens itself around your own. 
. . . You cannot do wrong without 
suffering wrong." "Always pay; for first 
or last you must pay your entire debt. 
Persons and events may stand for a time 
between you and justice, but it is only a 
postponement. You must pay at last your 
own debt." 

This is the law, but we often forget it in 
the turmoil of this world, as we live on the 
surface and see wrong and injustice ap- 
parently triumphant. If, however, we cling 
to this standard of life, we lose our moral 
stamina and make no headway. We should 
not do right merely because it will bring 
us a little satisfaction, but because it is the 
only way to live. When understanding 
becomes the guiding factor in our life, then 
we do our duty without thought of reward. 
Until we reach this attitude of mind, how- 
ever, all our actions will create new bond- 
age for us. 



38 Emerson and Vedanta 

The only way we can be freed from the 
chain of action and reaction is by not 
caring for the result. But how can we 
work without thought of some result? 
What impetus shall we have? Actually if 
we put a price on our action, we limit the 
result by our own limitation and we de- 
prive ourselves. If on the contrary we put 
no price whatever, but are willing to work 
for the sake of the work, the One who 
knows all things will bestow on us the 
greatest result. When a person gives to 
another or does for another with the lin- 
gering thought of gratitude or applause, 
this thought destroys the merit of the ac- 
tion. But when we can free our mind 
from the desire for personal gratification, 
we gain everything, yet we avoid the re- 
action. 

The compensation must come. We do 
not have to ask for it. If our labor is 
worthy of any recompense, the law will 



Karma and Compensation 39 

bring it to us. We cannot lose it. We are 
bound to get it. As Emerson puts it : "Hu- / 
man labor, through all its forms, from the 
sharpening of a stake to the construction 
of a city or an epic, is one immense illus- 
tration of the perfect compensation of the 
universe. The absolute balance of Give 
and Take, the doctrine that everything has 
its price, and if that price is not paid, not 
that thing but something else is obtained, 
and that it is impossible to get anything 
without its price, is not less sublime in the 
columns of a ledger than in the budgets 
of states, in the laws of light and darkness, 
in all the action and reaction of nature." 

Sometimes this does not seem to be true, 
because we see people who reap results 
without apparent labor. Take, for example, 
a man of genius. He has not worked for 
his gift, he is born with it, he has it. But 
when we extend our vision back into the 
past, we find that his genius is not an ac- 



40 Emerson and Vedanta 

cident. He has earned it, he has paid the 
price. He has worked for it at some time, 
and as the result of that labor the flower 
of genius has blossomed in this life. So 
with the child who is born miserable or un- 
fortunate. That child has a soul, and that 
soul did not begin with this body. It has 
a past full of experiences which have 
moulded its present conditions. The man 
who blinds himself to these deeper facts, to 
him the whole universe is a mystery ; and 
the more he tries to find an explanation, 
the more he becomes confused and relent- 
less in his judgment. 

"There is a deeper fact in the soul than 
compensation, to wit, its own nature. The 
soul is not a compensation, but a life. The 
soul is. Under all this running sea of cir- 
cumstance, whose waters ebb and flow 
with perfect balance, lies the aboriginal 
abyss of Being. Essence, or God, is not a 
relation or a part, but the whole." "In 



Karma and Compensation 41 

the nature of the soul is the compensation 
for the irregularities of condition. The 
radical tragedy of nature seems to be the 
distinction of More or Less. How can 
Less not feel the pain; how not feel in- 
dignation or malevolence towards More? 
Look at those who have less faculty and 
one feels sad and knows not well what to 
make of it. He almost shuns their eye; 
he fears they will upbraid God. What 
should they do.? It seems a great injus- 
tice. But see the facts nearly and these 
mountainous inequalities vanish. Love 
reduces them as the sun melts the iceberg 
in the sea. The heart and soul of all men 
being one, this bitterness of His and Mine 
ceases. His is mine. I am my brother and 
my brother is me." 

These words of Emerson remind us of 
a beautiful passage in the Isa-Upanishad : 
"He who beholds all beings in the Great 
Self and the Self in all beings, he never 



42 Emersofi and Vedanta 

turns away from It (the Self). He who 
perceives all beings as the Self, for him 
how can there be delusion or grief, when 
he sees oneness everywhere?" Sorrow, 
hatred, jealousy and all such base quali- 
ties cannot touch him. He is enveloped 
with one spirit only, the spirit of love. 
When the great understanding of the light 
of Truth shines in our heart, all these little 
feelings vanish; and in their place there is 
joy and love unbounded. "We are idola- 
ters of the old," Emerson again declares. 
"We do not believe in the riches of the 
soul, in its proper eternity and omnipres- 
ence. We do not believe there is any force 
in to-day to rival or recreate that beautiful 
yesterday. We linger in the ruins of the 
old tent where once we had bread and 
shelter and organs, nor believe that the 
spirit can feed, cover and nerve us again. 
We cannot again find aught so dear, so 
sweet, so graceful. But we sit and weep 



Karma and Compensation 43 

in vain. The voice of the Almighty saith, 
'Up and onward for evermore!' " 

Man must rise ; he must not grieve over 
his dead actions. He must go onward and 
forward, if he wishes to attain the realm 
of perfection. He must not linger in the 
ruins of the past. He must not cling to 
material conditions, which are ever-shift- 
ing. He must not base his happiness on 
this one little span of life. When the veil 
of death falls, he must not imagine that 
all is over, that his last opportunity is 
gone. Opportunities are never lacking, but 
we are not always ready to profit by them. 
The wisest thing for us is to make the best 
possible use of our present. We hamper 
our progress when we lay undue stress on 
the past or the future. If the present is 
well-lived, the future will take care of it- 
self. But we must have wisdom and we 
must have strength. If we know the na- 
ture of the soul, and are imbued with these 



44 Emerson and Vedanta 

bigger ideas, then we cannot do anything 
small. 

We may make thousands of laws, but 
that will not check crime ; we must lift the 
criminal by giving him understanding. If 
he knows that when he commits a crime, 
he hurts himself more than the one he 
tries to injure, he will not do it. When a 
man realizes that he is the maker of his 
own life, the maker of his own bondage; 
that he holds the key by which he can un- 
lock the door and enter into the realms of 
lasting happiness ; then it gives him a new 
impetus to go on and he is not tempted to 
do things which create bondage. Vedanta 
does not threaten the wrong-doer with the 
rod of punishment; it does not tell him 
that he is sinful or accursed. On the con- 
trary, it sounds the dynamic note: "O 
child of Immortal Bliss, it does not befit 
thee to do these things which are of the 
world and unworthy." 



Karma and Compensation 45 

Whatever we sow, whether consciously 
or unconsciously, must bear fruit; so we 
must become conscious beings. We must 
do more than just live somehow or other. 
Eating, sleeping, feeling pleasure and pain, 
these we have in common with the brute. 
If we limit our consciousness and aspira- 
tion to that narrow sphere, we are no bet- 
ter than the lower animals. We must lift 
our standard* We must not do only what 
benefits us here and now ; we must benefit 
ourselves eternally. We must not merely 
think of this little self, we must work for 
our soul. When we can live with supreme 
understanding, as children of God; when 
we can lay all actions like flowers on the 
altar of God; then we shall escape from 
reactionary bondage, and all the actions 
we perform will lead us towards freedom 
even in this life. 



Ill 

ATMAN AND OVER-SOUL 



WHETHER God and soul are myths 
or facts is a question which has 
been discussed in all ages by all the think- 
ing minds of the world; and although 
sages and mystics have proved it by their 
own light, this cannot reveal it to others 
who have not the same light. "Every man's 
words who speaks from that life must 
sound vain to those who do not dwell in 
the same thought on their own part," Em- 
erson writes. "I dare not speak for it. 
My words do not carry its august sense ; 
they fall short and cold. Only itself can 
inspire whom it will, and behold! their 
speech shall be lyrical and sweet, and uni- 
versal as the rising of the wind." In 



Atman and Over-Soul 47 

similar words Yama, the Lord of Death, 
speaks to Nachiketas in the Katha-Upa- 
nishad. "The Atman cannot be obtained 
by mere study of the Scriptures, nor by 
intellectual perception, nor by frequent 
hearing of It; he whom the Self chooses, 
by him alone is It attained. To him the 
Self reveals Its true nature. But he who 
has not turned away from evil conduct, 
whose senses are uncontrolled, who is not 
tranquil, whose mind is not at rest, he can 
never attain this Self even by knowledge." 
That is, unless a man lives the life and de- 
velops his higher spiritual faculties, mere 
intellectual knowledge cannot help him 
much. As Emerson says again: 

"The philosophy of six thousand years 
has not searched the chambers and maga- 
zines of the soul. In its experiments there 
has always remained, in the last analysis, 
a residuum it could not resolve. Man is 
a stream whose source is hidden. Our be- 



48 Emerson and Vedanta 

ing is descending into us from we know 
not whence. The most exact calculator 
has not prescience that somewhat incal- 
culable may not balk the next moment. I 
am constrained every moment to acknowl- 
edge a higher origin for events than the 
will I call mine. . . . We live in suc- 
cession, in division, in parts, in particles. 
Meantime in man is the soul of the whole ; 
the wise silence; the universal beauty; to 
which every part and particle is equally 
related; the eternal One. And this deep 
power in which we exist and whose beati- 
tude is all accessible to us, is not only self- 
sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the 
act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer 
and the spectacle, the subject and the ob- 
L ject are one." 

The ancient Vedic Scriptures abound in 
passages describing in almost identical 
terms the relation of the phenomenal 
world with the Unseen One, and the con- 



Atman and Over-Soul 49 

nection of the soul with its origin — the 
One without a second. Nowhere does Ved- 
anta deal with the universe as a com- 
bination of unrelated fragments ; it sees all 
things as parts of a great whole and it tries 
to bind all these parts together in that 
whole, yet without destroying the entity 
of each individual soul. Therefore, before 
we can define our relation with the world, 
we must discover our relation with its 
Source. That is, we must project our 
mind beyond this little span of self-con- 
sciousness and learn to know our real Self. 
In the philosophy of the Vedas we find a 
clear distinction made between what man 
calls his self and the Over-Soul ; the Jivat- 
man and the Paramatman, the individual 
self and the Supreme Self ; or between the 
apparent man and the real man. 

Man is the reflection of God; but the 
reflection cannot exist without the object 
reflected; so man must know what C • ' is. 



50 Emerson and Vedanta 

if he would know himself. This has been 
the search down the ages and this search 
must be made by every individual for him- 
self ; there is no one who can answer this 
question for another. Because of this it 
ever remains a hidden mystery. It is true 
that certain philosophies and ethical sys- 
tems, like the Buddhistic, drop the self en- 
tirely ; but the self they drop is the man of 
name, form and limitations. And it is 
necessary to do this, because we can never 
be wholly possessor of our eternal being 
until we transcend the consciousness of 
mundane things. 

What is the Atman or Self.? In the 
Kena-Upanishad It is defined as "the ear 
of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech 
of the speech, the life of the life, the eye 
of the eye. That which cannot be thought 
by mind, but by which mind is able to 
think; that which is not seen by the eye, 
but by which the eye is able to see; that 



Atman and Over-Soul 51 

which cannot be heard by the ear, but by 
which the ear is able to hear." Emerson 
draws almost the same picture when he 
writes : "All goes to show that the soul in 
man is not an organ, but animates and 
exercises all the organs ; is not a function, 
like the power of memory, of calculation, 
of comparison, but uses these as hands and 
feet; is not a faculty, but a light; is not 
the intellect or the will, but the master of 
the intellect and the will; is the back- 
ground of our being, in which they lie, an 
immensity not possessed and that cannot 
be possessed. From within or from be- 
hind, a light shines through us upon things 
and makes us aware that we are nothing, 
but the light is all. 

"A man is the facade of a temple where- 
in all wisdom and all good abide. What 
we commonly call man, the eating, drink- 
ing, planting, counting man, does not, as 
we know him, represent himself, but mis- 



52 Emerson and Vedanta 

represents himself. Him we do not re- 
spect, but the soul, whose organ he is, 
would he let it appear through his action, 
would make our knees bend. When it 
breathes through his intellect, it is genius ; 
when it breathes through his will, it is 
virtue ; when it flows through his affection, 
it is love. And the blindness of the intel- 
lect begins when it would be something 
of itself. The weakness of the will begins 
when the individual would be something 
of himself. All reform aims in some one 
particular to let the soul have its way 
through us ; in other words, to engage us 
to obey. 

"Of this pure nature every man is at 
some time sensible. Language cannot 
paint it with his colors. It is too subtile. 
It is undefinable, unmeasurable ; but we 
know that all spiritual being is in man. A 
wise old proverb says, *God comes to see 
us without bell'; that is, as there is no 



Atman and Over-Soul 53 



screen or ceiling between our heads and 
the infinite heavens, so is there no bar or 
wall in the soul, where man, the effect, 
ceases and God, the cause, begins. The 
walls are taken away. We lie open on one 
side to the deeps of spiritual nature, to 
the attributes of God. Justice we see and 
know, Love, Freedom, Power. These na- 
tures no man ever got above, but they 
tower over us, and most in the moment 
when our interests tempt us to wound 
them." 

The eating, drinking, sleeping man 
thinks his whole life is contained in his 
physical being. His miseries to him are 
great realities ; his hands and feet, his eyes, 
nose, these various bodily organs seem all- 
important; while he overlooks that by 
which he is living, acting and thinking. 
When we descend to this state of con- 
sciousness, we inevitably misrepresent 
ourselves. As soon as we forget our soul- 



54 Emerson and Vedanta 

nature, we become selfish entities; we 
think that to find happiness we must de- 
ceive or override our fellow-men, and do 
everything for our own gain and gratifica- 
tion. But the real man within, who is ma- 
jestic and free from all sense of competi- 
tion and rivalry, turns away from fleeting 
mundane vanities, because he knows that 
his true being is of God. 
r "The influence of the senses has, in most 
men, overpowered the mind to that degree 
that the walls of time and space have 
come to look real and insurmountable; 
and to speak with levity of these limits is, 
in the world, the sign of insanity. Yet 
time and space are but inverse measures 
of the force of the soul." "See how the 
deep divine thought reduces centuries and 
millenniums, and makes itself present 
through all ages. Is the teaching of Christ 
less effective now than it was when first 
his mouth was opened? The emphasis of 



Atman and Over-Soul 55 

facts and persons in my thought has noth- 
ing to do with time. And so, always the 
soul's scale is one; the scale of the senses 
and the understanding is another. Before 
the revelations of the soul, time, space and 
Nature shrink away." 

How like these words of Emerson is the 
passage in the Svetasvatara-Upanishad : 
"When the light of the Atman or Self has 
risen, there is no day, no night, neither ex- 
istence nor non-existence. For the sun 
does not shine there, nor the moon and the 
stars, nor these lightnings and much less 
this fire. When He shines, everything 
shines after Him; by His light all this is 
lighted. He makes all. He knows all, the 
self-caused, the knower, the Time of 
time!" Spiritual verities can never be 
matters of tradition. We can never be- 
lieve in things until we become acquainted 
with them through our own direct per- 
ception. No one can make us believe that 



56 Emerson and Vedanta 

we have a soul until we become aware of 
it ourselves. Theoretical knowledge is 
not dependable knowledge. Even a small 
amount of knowledge based on direct ap- 
prehension is a far surer guide than the 
greatest amount of learning. Intellectual 
knowledge leads us into an ever-increas- 
ing tangle of diversity ; while direct vision 
always simplifies and leads to fundamental 
unity. As Emerson again declares : 

"The mind is one; and the best minds 
who love truth for its own sake, think 
much less of property in truth. They ac- 
cept it thankfully everywhere, and do not 
label or stamp it with any man's name, for 
it is theirs long beforehand, and from 
eternity. The learned and the studious of 
thought have no monopoly of wisdom. 
Their violence of direction in some degree 
disqualifies them to think truly. We owe 
many valuable observations to people who 
are not \'ery acute or profound, and who 



Atman and Over-Soul 57 

say the thing without effort, which we 
want and have long been hunting in vain. 
I'he action of the soul is oftener in that 
which is left unsaid than in that which is 
said in any conversation." 

Here Emerson strikes the same univer- 
s'^l note which sounds through all Vedic 
teaching, that Truth is not the exclusive 
property of any one group of people, but 
is the common property of the whole hu- 
man race and equally open to all who can 
claim it. Whoever is open to Truth does 
not care from what source it comes. It is 
Truth, that is sufficient. He does not try 
to label it. If we love God above all things 
and seek to be united with Him, no divi- 
sions or distinctions can exist for us. The 
Lord abides equally in every heart and 
when we see Him there, all barriers of ex- 
clusiveness must fall. God is One, Truth 
is One, the Infinite Spirit is One. There 
is but one great family and God is the 



r 



58 Emerson and Vedanta 

presiding head of that family. Until we 
recognize this and feel in our hearts that 
He is our real Father or Mother, we can- 
not be fully open to the higher revelation. 

Lofty spiritual Truth exists irrespective 
of time or place. It always stands there ; 
and when people are ready to receive it, it 
unfolds itself to them. "We are wiser than 
we know," Emerson says. "If we will not 
interfere with our thought, but will act 
entirely, or see how the thing stands in 
God, we know the particular thing, and 
every thing, and every man. For the maker 
of all things and all persons stands behind 
us and casts his dread omniscience through 
us over things." 

Few possess a pure spiritual sense, and 
one who has it, because he speaks and acts 
differently from others, stands out from 
among men ; and people interpret this pe- 
culiarity as insanity. Emerson speaks of 
this also. "A certain tendency to insanity," 



Atman and Over-Soul 59 

he writes, "has always attended the open- 
ing of the religious sense in men, as if 
they had been 'blasted with excess of light.' 
The trances of Socrates, the 'union' of 
Plotinus, the vision of Porphyry, the con- 
version of Paul, the aurora of Behmen, the 
convulsions of George Fox and his Quak- 
ers, the illumination of Swedenborg, are of 
this kind. . . . Revelation is the dis- 
closure of the soul. The popular notion of 
a revelation is that it is a telling of for- 
tunes. In past oracles of the soul the un- 
derstanding seeks to find answers to sen- 
sual questions and undertakes to tell from 
God how long men shall exist, what their 
hands shall do and who shall be their com- 
pany, adding names and dates and places. 
But we must pick no locks. We must 
check this low curiosity." 

When man seeks light, not for what it 
will bring him in the form of health, pros- 
perity or success, but for itself, then alone 



60 Emerson and Vedanta 

will it come. Only when love of the soul 
leads him upward and onward will he at- 
tain it. In no other way can he gain com- 
munion with the Eternal Spirit. At every 
step of life two paths confront us. One 
leads Godward; the other towards the 
world. The wise, distinguishing between 
the two, choose the Real and Eternal; 
while the ignorant, preferring that which 
brings immediate and tangible results, 
choose the lower path. The one moves 
inward, the other moves outward. "The 
Self-existent created the senses outgoing; 
for this reason man sees the external 
world, but not the inner Atman or Self. 
Some wise men, however, desiring immor- 
tality, with eyes turned away from the ex- 
ternal, see the Great Self within." 

Bearing out this statement of the Vedic 
Scriptures, Emerson says : "The great dis- 
tinction between teachers sacred or literary 
— ^between poets like Herbert and poets 



Atman and Over-Soul 61 

like Pope ; between philosophers like Spin- 
oza, Kant and Coleridge and philosophers 
like Locke, Mackintosh and Stewart; be- 
tween men of the world who are reckoned 
accomplished talkers and here and there 
a fervent mystic, prophesying, half insane 
under the infinitude of his thought — is 
that one class speaks from within, or from 
experience, as parties and possessors of the 
fact, and the other class jrom without, as 
spectators merely, or perhaps as acquaint- 
ed with the fact on the evidence of third 
persons. It is no use to preach to me from 
without. I can do that easily for myself. 
Jesus speaks always from within and in a 
degree that transcends all others. In that 
is the miracle." 

The same attitude is to be found among 
the Indo- Aryans. Mere scholarship has 
never been considered by them an essen- 
tial qualification for a spiritual teacher. He 
must be one who knows, who is directly 



62 Emerson and Vedanta 

acquainted with the higher facts of life; 
not one who can fill the brain with theories 
about God. The real spiritual genius is 
not dependent on any outer support, his 
strength comes from the Fountainhead. 
If I go to a man who is only brilliant in- 
tellectually, he may satisfy me for a mo- 
ment, but afterwards the mind seems more 
confused. If, on the contrary, I go to a 
man who has the light of higher under- 
standing, he may perhaps speak only one 
word, but that word will prove to be a 
seed which will spring up and bear fruit. 
As Emerson puts it : "The tone of seeking 
is one and the tone of having is another." 
"If a man have not found his home in God, 
his manners, his form of speech, the turn 
of his sentences, the build, shall I say, of 
all his opinions will involuntarily confess 
it, let him brave it out how he will. If 
he have found his centre, the Deity will 
shine through him, through all the dis- 



Atman and Over-Soul 63 

guises of ignorance, of ungenial tempera- 
ment, of unfavorable circumstance." 

The eternal Self, it is true, dwells in the 
heart of every mortal ; but it is to be at- 
tained only in a state of consciousness 
where reason cannot reach. When, how- 
ever, the mind is concentrated and turned 
within, then the mortal perceives the glory 
of the immortal Self and "rejoices, because 
he has obtained that which is the cause of 
all true joy," as it is said in the Katha- 
Upanishad. Emerson also writes; "In- 
effable is the union of man and God in 
every act of the soul. The simplest per- 
son who in his integrity worships God, be- 
comes God; yet for ever and ever the in- 
flux of this better and universal self is 
new and unsearchable. It inspires awe 
and astonishment. When we have broken 
our god of tradition and ceased from our 
god of rhetoric, then may God fire the 
heart with his presence. It is the doubling 



64 Emerson and Vedanta 

of the heart itself, nay, the infinite enlarge- 
ment of the heart with a power of growth 
to a new infinity on every side." Also in 
the Upanishads we read : "The knower of 
Brahman (the Supreme) becomes like un- 
to Brahman." 

When a man enters the chamber of his 
soul, he may enter as a man, but he comes 
out transformed. A man cannot help go- 
ing wrong and making mistakes as long 
as he is ignorant of his true nature. The 
only aid we can give him is to kindle in 
him the higher sense of the reality of God 
and his own soul. When he is able to per- 
ceive this, it will then not be possible for 
him to be dragged down by the unrealities 
of this world. So long as man is con- 
scious only of his little self, he will be self- 
conceited; but let him come under the 
dominion of the Great Self and at once 
his consciousness will expand and carry 
him beyond the limits of selfish thought 



Atman and Over-Soul 65 

and action. We cannot expect this higher 
state of understanding, however, to come 
upon us suddenly; but its unfoldment is 
only possible as the result of careful and 
deliberate preparation. 

There can be little question that Emer- 
son was strongly imbued with the spirit of 
the Upanishads when he wrote his essay 
on the Over-Soul. The title itself indicates 
it, for "Over-Soul" is almost a literal 
translation of the Sanskrit word Param- 
Atman (Supreme Self.) The very expres- 
sions, as well as the thought contained in 
the essay, are all akin to those found in the 
Indo-Aryan Scriptures. But this does not 
imply that they were borrowed. Emerson 
undoubtedly drew his inspiration from the 
Vedas ; yet it was his own spiritual genius 
which enabled him to grasp the lofty ideals 
they proclaim, and give them out with 
such masterful power. When great men 
study the Scriptures of the world, it does 



66 Emerson and Vedanta 

not unsettle their understanding or rob 
them of their own true faith, but it makes 
them see the universality of Truth and 
leads them to unite all the varying expres- 
sions of Truth into one great whole. When- 
ever spiritual seeking becomes an all-ab- 
sorbing passion of our soul, we are inevi- 
tably released from all doctrinal and creed- 
bound beliefs and are brought face to face 
with the great cosmic, universal and all- 
abiding Truth. 



IV 
EMERSON AND HINDU CLASSICS 



THE value of comparative study is 
unmistakable. Every sincere seeker 
after Truth recognizes the great stimulus 
it exerts over the mind, and welcomes 
with joyous heart every revelation 
that is sustained and verified by many 
sources both old and new. The dogmatist, 
on the other hand, in order to safeguard 
his chosen creed, sits with doors closed to 
both past and present. 

We forget that Truth is self-sufficient 
and self-sustaining and does not require 
human hand to protect it. Why should 
a precept of the New Testament be less 
valuable if it is found in the Old Testa- 
ment, or again in the Jewish Kabala, or 



68 Emerson and Vedanta 

in the Egyptian sacred codes, in the Zend 
Avesta of the Parsees, in the great Chinese 
classics, or in the Indo-Aryan Vedic reve- 
lation? Not only is the value of such a 
saying not decreased, it is reinforced a 
thousandfold and its utility is expanded. 
It is only when we settle down to re- 
ligious morbidity that we are fearful of 
anything out of our usual custom or habit. 
No one who has come in contact with 
the Indo-Aryan culture and its great clas- 
sical treasures can help but recognize a 
profound kinship of thought between these 
and many of Emerson's writings and utter- 
ances. This is not merely a matter of 
inference; Emerson himself speaks of it 
frequently, as in his essay on "Worship" 
where he says : "We owe to the Hindu 
Scriptures a definition of Law which com- 
pares well with any in our Western books : 
*Law it is, which is without name, or color, 
or hands, or feet ; which is smallest of the 



Emerson and Hindu Classics 69 

least, and largest of the large; all, and 
knowing all things; which hears without 
ears, sees without eyes, moves without feet, 
and seizes without hands.' " This thought J 
is a free rendering from a passage in the 
Upanishads. 

Then again in the opening stanza of his 
poem "Brahma" we read: 

"If the red slayer thinks he slays, 
Or if the slain thinks he is slain, 
They know not well the subtle ways 
I keep, and pass, and turn again." 

Here he voices almost literally a verse 
from the Bhagavad-Gita : "He who con- 
siders this Self as a slayer or he who thinks 
that this Self is slain, neither of these 
knows the Truth. For It does not slay 
nor is It slain." 

His essay on "Immortality" he con- 
cludes with the story of Nachiketas from 
the Katha-Upanishad. We give it in his 
own words as he has retold it. "It is 



70 Emerson and Vedanta 

curious to find the selfsame feeling, that 
it is not immortality, but eternity, — not 
duration, but a state of abandonment to 
the Highest, and so the sharing of His 
perfection, — appearing in the farthest east 
and west. The human mind takes no ac- 
count of geography, language, or legends, 
but in all utters the same instinct. 

"Yama, the lord of Death, promised 
Nachiketas, the son of Gautama, to grant 
him three boons at his own choice. Nachi- 
ketas, knowing that his father Gautama 
was offended with him, said, *0 Death! 
let Gautama be appeased in mind, and for- 
get his anger against me: this I choose 
for the first boon.' Yama said, ^Through 
my favor, Gautama will remember thee 
with love as before.' For the second boon, 
Nachiketas asks that the fire by which 
heaven is gained be made known to him; 
which also Yama allows, and says, 'Choose 
the third boon, O Nachiketas.' 



Emerson and Hindu Classics 71 

"Nachiketas said, 'There is this inquiry. 
Some say the soul exists after the death of 
man; others say it does not exist. This 
I should like to know, instructed by thee.' 
Such is the third of the boons. Yama 
said, Tor this question, it was inquired of 
old, even by the gods ; for it is not easy to 
understand it. Subtle is its nature. Choose 
another boon, O Nachiketas! Do not 
compel me to this.' Nachiketas said, 'Even 
by the gods was it inquired. And as to 
what thou sayest, O Death, that it is not 
easy to understand it, there is no other 
teacher to be found like thee. There is no 
other boon like this.' 

"Yama said, 'Choose sons and grand- 
sons who may live a hundred years; 
choose herds of cattle; choose elephants 
and gold and horses ; choose the wide ex- 
panded earth, and live thyself as many 
years as thou listeth. Or, if thou knowest 
a boon like this, choose it, together with 



72 Emerson and Vedanta 

wealth and far-extending life. Be a king, 
O Nachiketas! On the wide earth I will 
make thee the enjoyer of all desires. All 
those desires that are difficult to gain in 
the world of mortals, all those ask thou at 
thy pleasure; — those fair nymphs of 
heaven with their chariots, with their mu- 
sical instruments; for the like of them 
are not to be gained by men. I will give 
them to thee, but do not ask the question 
of the state of the soul after death.' Nachi- 
ketas said, 'All those enjoyments are of 
yesterday. With thee remain thy horses 
and elephants, with thee the dance and 
song. If we should obtain wealth, we live 
only as long as thou pleasest. The boon 
which I choose I have said.' 

"Yama said, 'One thing is good, another 
is pleasant. Blessed is he who takes the 
good, but he who chooses the pleasant loses 
the object of man. But thou, considering 
the objects of desire, hast abandoned them. 



Emerson and Hindu Classics 73 

These two, ignorance (whose object is 
what is pleasant) and knowledge (whose 
object is what is good), are known to be 
far asunder, and to lead to different goals. 
Believing this world exists, and not the 
other, the careless youth is subject to my 
sway. That knowledge for which thou hast 
asked is not to be obtained by argument. 
I know worldly happiness is transient, for 
that firm one is not to be obtained by what 
is not firm. The wise, by means of the 
union of the intellect with the soul, think- 
ing him whom it is hard to behold, leaves 
both grief and joy. Thee, O Nachiketas ! 
I believe a house whose door is open to 
Brahma. Brahma the supreme, whoever 
knows Him obtains whatever he wishes. 
The soul is not born; it does not die; it 
was not produced from any one. Nor was 
any produced from it. Unborn, eternal, 
it is not slain, though the body is slain; 
subtler than what is subtle, greater than 



74 Emerson and Vedanta 

what is great, sitting it goes far, sleeping 
it goes everywhere. Thinking the soul as 
unbodily among bodies, firm among fleet- 
ing things, the wise man casts off all grief. 
The soul cannot be gained by knowledge, 
not by understanding, not by manifold 
science. It can be obtained by the soul 
by which it is desired. It reveals its own 
truths.' " 

All this proves conclusively that Emer- 
son was thoroughly imbued with the Vedic 
revelation and freely drew inspiration 
from its teaching. Again and again he 
acknowledges his debt to the ancients. 
After reviewing the mighty attainments 
of antique Greece and Rome, as well as 
those of ancient and mediaeval Europe, 
.,he adds in his essay on the "Progress of 
Culture": "But if these works still sur- 
vive and multiply, what shall we say of 
names more distant, or hidden through 
their very superiority to their coevals, — 



Emerson and Hindu Classics 75 

names of men who have left remains that 
certify a height of genius in their several 
directions not since surpassed, and which 
men in proportion to their wisdom still 
cherish, — as Zoroaster, Confucius, and 
the grand Scriptures only recently known 
to Western nations, of the Indian Vedas, 
the Institutes of Manu, the Puranas, the 
poems of the Mahabarat and the Rama- 
yana?" 

Emerson was not the only one who came 
in contact with the Indo-Aryan culture 
and its thought; but he was one of those 
few who possessed sincerity of purpose, 
breadth of vision, and courage of convic- 
tion enough to recognize and acknowledge 
his debt to it. As I have already pointed 
out, in the higher realms of thought bor- 
rowing is neither possible nor practicable ; 
but a harmonious blending of what is true 
and fundamental brings about a glorious 
fulfillment of high idealism. Man can 



76 Emerson and Vedanta 

never hope to attain his spiritual grandeur 
until he is willing to partake of the bless- 
ings of others and share his own with un- 
biased heart. 



"He who sees all beings in the Self and the 
Self in all beings, he never turns away from the 
Self. He who perceives all beings as the Self, 
for him how can there be delusion or grief, when 
he sees this oneness everywhere?" 

— IsA Upanishad. 



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